Coco Aminos Adobo

Adobo can mean different things to different people. For some, it’s comfort food. For others, it’s a family heritage. For many, it’s both.

And for us at ECHOstore, this Filipino favorite can take on a healthier twist.

What's in a name?

Names can be deceiving. Adobo may sound foreign, but it is truly a Filipino dish. When the Spaniards came to the Philippines, they christened the indigenous dish.  In Spanish, adobo means sauce, marinade, or seasoning. They also have a dish called adobo with paprika, salt, garlic, and vinegar as main ingredients. The two dishes share the same name, but they are not the same. 

For thousands of years adobo remained a staple to the Filipino taste palette. Adobo can be chicken, pork, or even mixed chicken and pork, and sometimes with egg. There are also vegetable adobos like adobong kangkong. The sour and salty mixture of vinegar and soy sauce enamored our taste buds. 

Adobo with a healthy twist

Chef Jam Melchor made our beloved dish healthier using Mama Evie’s Coco Aminos instead of soy sauce. 

Coconut aminos is a dark-colored sauce that tastes like soy sauce. It is made from the fermented sap of the coconut plant. Coco aminos are soy-free, gluten-free, and contains about 60 percent less salt than soy sauce. Therefore, it best suits people with dietary restrictions. 

Chef Jam shared his easy-to-follow recipe on how to cook coco aminos adobo. The great news is, one does not need to be a chef to cook this healthy dish!

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces

200 ml vinegar

150 ml Mama Evie’s Coco Aminos

3 tablespoons coconut oil

1 medium onion

1 clove garlic, crushed

4 pieces laurel/ bay leaves

Peppercorns, crushed

Sugar

Instructions:

1. Marinate chicken pieces overnight in 200 ml vinegar and 150 ml coco aminos.
2. Set aside the marinade.
3. Sauté the onion in coconut oil.
4. Once the onion softens, add the crushed garlic.
5. Once the garlic turns brown, add the chicken.
6. Mix chicken to onion and garlic.
7. Pour in the marinade.
8. Add four pieces of laurel leaves.
9. Cover the dish and simmer until oil is expressed from the chicken.
10.  Add crushed peppercorns.
11. Add sugar to taste and stir to combine.

Mama Evie’s Coco Aminos is produced by Raymundo’s Homemade Products, a woman-led business in Tagum City, Davao del Norte. Its proprietress Rowena Raymundo is among the 831 women micro-entrepreneurs from different communities around the Philippines who attended training conducted by ECHOsi Foundation through the GREAT WOMEN PROJECT. The project aims at women's economic empowerment by helping women micro-entrepreneurs develop and enhance their products and provide them a platform to reach the consumers. 

Mama Evie’s Coco Aminos and other women-crafted products are available on echostore.ph.